ABSTRACT

Competition policy is of great importance to the EU, and has particular interest for economists and lawyers (although the main focus in this chapter is on the economic rather than the legal aspects). Competition policy has been a preoccupation of microeconomists for a long time, and a strong policy is generally favoured because it is believed to be conducive to an optimal allocation of resources and efficiency. In the past policy in this area would have been referred to as antimonopoly policy, instead of by the more recent term “competition policy”. The two terms will be treated synonymously, although the newer term is favoured.